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Objective(s): In the present study, we investigated the effect of ischemic preconditioning (IPC) on c-myb immunoreactivity as well as neuronal damage/death after a subsequent lethal transient ischemia in gerbils. Materials and Methods: IPC was subjected to a 2 min sublethal ischemia and a lethal transient ischemia was given 5 min transient ischemia. The animals in all of the groups were given recovery times of 1 day, 2 days and 5 days and we examined change in c-myb immunoreactivity as well as neuronal damage/death in the hippocampus induced by a lethal transient ischemia. Results:A lethal transient ischemia induced a significant loss of cells in the stratum pyramidale (SP) of the hippocampal CA1 region at 5 days post-ischemia, and this insult showed that c-myb immunoreactivity in cells of the SP of the CA1 region was significantly decreased at 2 days post-ischemia and disappeared at 5 days post-ischemia. However, IPC effectively prevented the neuronal loss in the SP and showed that c-myb immunoreactivity was constitutively maintained in the SP after a lethal transient ischemia. Conclusion: Our results show that a lethal transient ischemia significantly decreased c-myb immunoreactivity in the SP of the CA1 region and that IPC well preserved c-myb immunoreactivity in the SP of the CA1 region. We suggest that the maintenance of c-myb might be related with IPC-mediated neuroprotection after a lethal ischemic insult.

Objective(s): The alteration of glucose transporters is closely related with the pathogenesis of brain edema. We compared neuronal damage/death in the hippocampus between adult and young gerbils following transient cerebral ischemia/reperfusion and changes of glucose transporter-1(GLUT-1)-immunoreactive microvessels in their ischemic hippocampal CA1 region. Materials and Methods: Transient cerebral ischemia was developed by 5-min occlusion of both common carotid arteries. Neuronal damage was examined by cresyl violet staining, NeuN immunohistochemistry and Fluoro-Jade B histofluorescence staining and changes in GLUT-1 expression was carried out by immunohistochemistry. Results: About 90% of pyramidal neurons only in the adult CA1 region were damaged after ischemia/reperfusion; in the young, about 53 % of pyramidal neurons were damaged from 7 days after ischemia/reperfusion. The density of GLUT-1-immunoreactive microvessels was significantly higher in the young sham-group than that in the adult sham-group. In the ischemia-operated-groups, the density of GLUT-1-immunoreactive microvessels was significantly decreased in the adult and young at 1 and 4 days post-ischemia, respectively, thereafter, the density of GLUT-1-immunoreactive microvessels was gradually increased in both groups after ischemia/reperfusion. Conclusion: CA1 pyramidal neurons of the young gerbil were damaged much later than that in the adult and that GLUT-1-immunoreactive microvessels were significantly decreased later in the young. These data indicate that GLUT-1 might differently contribute to neuronal damage according to age after ischemic insults.